James Robertson and Felice Beato in the Crimea: Recent findings

Abstract

This article examines the activities of the photographers James Robertson and Felice Beato in the Crimean War, with particular reference to the marketing of their work among the stationed forces and the Anglo-French public at home. Drawing primarily on the correspondence of the French artist Jean-Charles Langlois, this study emphasizes the important contribution of Robertson's assistant Felice Beato in the production of the Crimean series and the formative impact of these experiences on his training as a war photographer. Langlois's correspondence supports the re-attribution of several photographs of the Crimea to Felice Beato, constituting the earliest known works credited to this photographer. In their subsequent travels to Malta and Jerusalem, Robertson and Beato's professional relationship underwent rapid transformation, reflecting the complexity of their collaboration and the difficulties of approaching nineteenth-century travel photographers in isolation from their professional colleagues and rivals.